Be Free

A while ago a prominent blogger offered the opportunity for fellow bloggers to do a guest post on his website that could possibly be viewed by thousands of people. This has prompted me to contemplate what I would say if I had the attention of a large group of people for 5 minutes. How would I use those 5 minutes and what would I say?

I could tell people about autism and how it’s not a curse. I could talk about depression and how it can affect even the happiest of people. I could talk about suicide and what people can do to prevent it. I could talk about God and how much He loves everyone. I could talk about a number of things that are important to me and that I think could benefit people to hear, but ultimately I think I would talk about being free.

If I had people’s attention for five minutes, I would tell them to go be free. Not the go “burn your bras” type of free, but the “have no fear” and “be yourself” type of free. I think people limit themselves so much. We do things that limit our freedom because of fear. We fear rejection, loneliness, depression, failure. And because we fear these things, we do things that limit our freedom to be ourselves. We limit our personalities. We limit our hopes and dreams. We limit our efforts. And in conforming to our fears, we become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So, what would I say if people were listening for five minutes?

Go be free.

Go allow yourself to live.

Go enjoy life.

Do not fear.

Life is not meant to be feared. Life is meant to be lived. Fear drives us to not be ourselves. Fear traps us and controls us. And in the end, what should we really fear? We should fear living in fear. We should fear living a life controlled by fear. Everything else is a luxury. Everything else is an auxiliary to life if we’re living with no fear.

There are a few quotes circulating about that say, “what would you do if you knew you could not fail?” or “what would you do if you had no fear?” Are you holding back something because of fear? Are you living under your potential because you’re afraid of rejection or failure?